Ineffective leadership

Lal Fonseka
Productivity Consultant,
Brandix Lanka Limited

“The most important, and indeed the truly unique, contribution of management in the 20th Century was the fifty-fold increase in the productivity of the MANUAL WORKER in manufacturing. The most important contribution management needs to make in the 21st Century is similarly to increase the productivity of KNOWLEDGE WORK and the KNOWLEDGE WORKER.” Drucker (1999, p135)

"All organizations say routinely 'People are our greatest asset'. Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it." (Drucker 1995 p77)

In the last few columns, we have looked at how effective leadership is built on an unwavering commitment to a clear vision and a driving commitment to consistently executing the fundamentals well.

Another essential quality of an effective leader is an untiring dedication to tapping into the skills, intelligence, and resources of all employees. An effective leader sees each employee as uniquely gifted and owns the responsibility to determine how to tap into that intelligence and use and develop those skills for the good of the whole organization. All organizations say routinely 'People are our greatest asset'. Yet few practice what they preach, let alone truly believe it. This is the biggest problem our organizations in Sri Lanka encounter.

Great leadership understands that matching the skill set of an employee to corporate needs is vital to success. That is more an art than a science.

Many people in leadership positions believe that the intelligence of the organization lies in the top management of the company. That is a myth. As a leader of the organization, your job is to figure out how best to unleash that intelligence for the good of your organization.

There is no doubt; it is not you the greatest asset of the organization. It is your employees in the organization.

Great leaders identify the need to lead by talking to everybody. They create the best map possible by using everyone and anyone as a source of information. Improve your skill to by first analyzing the groups you talk with now. You probably have regularly scheduled meetings and informal discussions with others about concerns and issues. Think about whom you systematically favour for information and who you may systematically ignore. Schedule time on your calendar to ask anybody and everybody about the issues and concerns they face at work. The effective leaders come to work earlier than anyone just to stand at the entrance to say "Good Morning" to everyone in the organization.

Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, the number-one retail company in the world, traveled around the country continually visiting his stores. His goal was to gather information from each and every person he meets. Walton talked to store managers, cashiers, stock clerks, and customers. He queried them about the issues, concerns, and problems that they felt affected store success and customer satisfaction. Do not misunderstand this action of Sam Walton to a act of gossiping or collecting information from employees and setting one against another.

If your organization has trouble identifying leaders, or has a shortage of leaders, be noted that you have a leadership problem. The biggest problem you have is the leadership problem and you cannot have any other problems. There is no argument, one has to agree with me that one of the primary responsibilities of leadership is to create more and better leaders. It was the very reason, John Maxwell said, "There is no success without a successor."

It is important to realize that just because someone is in a leadership position, does not necessarily mean they all are leaders. If put this in another way, not all leaders are leaders. I am not afraid to say that many leaders in Sri Lanka are not true leaders but they are ace cheaters. They say something, do something else. They have a sweet set of words in the vocabulary to address people. But now a day, employees are not fools to accept whatever the leaders put across to them. They know very well what leaders are up to.

However, the main problem many organizations are facing is that they cannot recognize good leaders from bad ones. In the text that follows, I will address how to spot ineffective leaders. This is only a few.

1. A leader who lacks character or integrity is not a leader. He may be intelligent, affable, persuasive, or savvy, but if he is prone to rationalizing unethical behavior based upon current or future needs they will eventually fall prey to their own undoing... As I have been repeatedly highlighting before, leaders should be role models. But from where we could find these role models?

2. Lack of Performance: One might argue that no one is perfect, but leaders who consistently fail are not leaders, no matter how much you wish they were. While past performance is not always a certain indicator of future events, a long-term track record of success should not be taken lightly. Someone who has consistently experienced success in leadership roles has a much better chance of success than someone who has not. It is important to remember unproven leaders come with a high risk premium.

3. Poor Communication Skills: We have talked about this before. If someone asks me to show a leader with poor communication skills and I will show you someone who will be short-lived in their position. Great leaders can communicate effectively across mediums, constituencies, and environments. They are active listeners, fluid thinkers, and know when to dial it up, down, or off.

4. Self-Serving Nature: If a leader does not understand the concept of 'service above self' they will not engender the trust, confidence, and loyalty of those they lead. Any leader is only as good as his or her team's desire to be led by them. An overabundance of ego, pride, and arrogance are not positive leadership traits. Long story short; if a leader receives a vote of non-confidence from their subordinates...game over.

5. One Size Fits All Leadership Style: Great leaders are fluid and flexible in their approach. They understand the power of, and necessity for contextual leadership. "My way or the highway" leadership styles don't play well in today's world, will result in a fractured culture, and ultimately a non-productive organization. Only those leaders who can quickly recognize and adapt their methods to the situation at hand will be successful over the long haul.

6. Leaders who do not possess a bias toward action, or who cannot deliver on their obligations will not be successful. Leadership is about performance...Intentions must be aligned with results for leaders to be effective.

7. Leaders satisfied with the status quo, or who tend to be more concerned about survival than growth will not do well over the long-run. The best leaders are focused on leading change and innovation to keep their organizations fresh, dynamic and growing. Bottom line - leaders who build a static business doom themselves to failure.

8. Leaders not attuned to the needs of the market will fail. Those are the ones who are disconnected from the market. As the old saying goes, if you are not taking care of your customers, someone else will be more than happy to. Successful leaders focus on customer satisfaction and loyalty. They find ways to consistently engage them and incorporate them into their innovation and planning initiatives. If you ignore, mistreat, or otherwise don't value your customer base, your days as a leader are most certainly numbered.

9. Leaders are fully committed to investing in those they lead. They support their team, build into their team, mentor and coach their team, and they truly care for their team. A leader not fully invested in their team won't have a team - at least not an effective one. This is known as investing on people.

10. True leaders are accountable. They do not blame others, do not claim credit for the success of their team, but always accept responsibility for failures that occur on their watch. In most of the governmental departments, leaders take the credit for the success of their team instead of giving the credit to the relevant person. I've always said that leaders not accountable to their people will eventually be held accountable by their people.

11. Leaders, who are not intentional and are not focused, will fail themselves and their team. Leaders who lack discipline will model the wrong behaviors and will inevitably spread themselves too thin. Organizations are at the greatest risk when leaders lose their focus.

12. Ineffective leaders do not possess a proper vision: Poor vision, tunnel vision, vision that is fickle, or a non-existent vision will cause leaders to fail. A leader's job is to align the organization around a clear and achievable vision. This cannot occur when the blind lead the blind.

Conclusion

I had bad bosses at one time or another. You know, the leaders that make you dread coming into work and are a constant source of your complaints. While you probably were more concerned about how the leader impacted your day-to-day work life, poor leadership is extremely damaging to the entire workforce, and is also pretty costly.

According to a study by The Ken Blanchard Companies, the average organization is losing an amount equal to 7% of its annual sales because of poor leadership. That is more than a million dollars per year for an organization with $15 million or more in annual sales.

Think about it, ineffective leaders create a disengaged workforce, and employees that are not loyal to their job and the company will start looking for new job opportunities. This creates a snowball effect of sorts where companies have to spend time and money fulfilling the vacant roles, and training the new staff members.

Obviously, companies need to break the trend and solve poor leadership issues before it is too late.

Quote:

"Companies tend to set targets that are not achievable by the work force this creates stress and demotivates people in general , but for some strange reason managers become blind to the work force needs and tend to see only company objectives.

This is a sure sign of bad leadership as company unrealistic targets drives managers to send out bad signals"